infographic
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The research carried out by
AVORD has revealed the cost of
protecting critical assets, with
77% of business in the UK stating
it is ‘too expensive’.
22
Businesses across the UK have
criticised the security testing
industry for being too expensive, with
a new report highlighting that firms
are spending more than £6.6 billion
annually protecting critical assets
from cyberattacks.
Research from AVORD – a new
security testing platform launched
in January – puts the spotlight
firmly on the security testing
market, which the company says
is dominated by consultancies that
provide services to businesses,
sometimes at twice the daily rate of
an independent tester.
And with 77% of UK businesses
claiming the cost of testing is too
expensive, AVORD says there is a
clear demand for change.
The need to use external
consultants is driven by the fact only
one in five (21%) UK businesses
have sufficient, in-house, employee
skills and knowledge to carry out
security testing – most of which are
major organisations with more than
750 employees.
Looking at SMEs, the figure falls
to just 1%, with businesses almost
exclusively (95%) outsourcing the
testing of security controls for its
critical assets.
The challenges of
security testing
Three in four businesses are
currently initiating security testing
to comply with organisational
operating practices and standards,
such as ISO27001, ITIL, ISF’s
Standard of Good Practice for
Information Security and public
sector guidelines. However, most
firms taking part in the study
said that determining the risks
associated with a sensitive data
breach (72%) and cost (72%) were
major challenges when it comes to
conducting tests.
The complexities and lack of security
testing knowledge were also cited as
key issues, with seven in 10 revealing
‘identifying when in the development
process to test’ and ‘what kind of testing
was required’ as further challenges.
As a result, more than three quarters of
businesses (82%) are now outsourcing
security testing on their critical assets at
considerable expense.
A new era in security testing
AVORD is offering a free online platform
which brings highly qualified security
testers together with businesses.
The brainchild of two career security
professionals, who have seen the market
monopolised by major consultancies,
it aims to enable companies to reduce
their costs by 30% to 40%.
Brian Harrison, Founder and CEO of
AVORD, said: “Quite simply, security
testing has become too expensive
for many UK businesses. Companies
are struggling to cope with the ever-
increasing threats impacting on their
attempts to secure systems at current
costs. Unless something changes,
businesses will be forced to cut
corners and this will inevitably mean
there are more data breaches and
system outages.” u
Unless something
changes, businesses
will be forced to
cut corners and
this will inevitably
mean there are more
data breaches and
system outages.
Issue 11
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